The parents of Madeleine McCann have lost the next round of their court struggle against the ex-police officer who led the investigation into their daughter’s disappearance.
Kate and Gerry McCann are attempting to sue Goncalo Amaral over his assertions that they were complicit in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, which he made in a book published in 2008 and reiterated in media interviews.
They first prevailed, but Amaral filed an appeal, and in 2016 Portuguese judges reversed the ruling, prompting the McCanns to file an appeal withthe European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Today, European judges ruled against the appeal and gave the McCanns three months to determine whether or not to appeal again.
Kate and Gerry McCann (file) have lost the latest round in their protracted court struggle with Goncalo Amaral, the former Portuguese police officer who oversaw the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.
Madeleine disappeared from a vacation apartment in Praia da Luz in 2007, and Amaral’s book suggests that her parents were involved.
Kate and Gerry’s attorneys had argued that the Portuguese courts’ handling of the case violated their right to respect for a private and family life.
In addition, they asserted that Amaral’s allegations implicating them had violated their right to a fair trial.
However, European judges dismissed this argument, stating that the McCanns’ reputation had been injured by Portuguese police mentioning them briefly as suspects, and not by Amaral’s remarks.
In a lengthy, five-page ruling delivered today, seven justices wrote: ‘The Court determined that, even assuming that the applicants’ reputation had been harmed, this was not a representation of the author’s position.
Rather, [their reputation was harmed] due to the suspicions leveled against them, which led to their investigation during the criminal probe.
The judges stated, “Therefore, the material was brought to the public’s knowledge in some detail before the investigative file was made accessible to the media and the book in question was released.”
The national authorities therefore did not breach their affirmative commitment to defend the applicants’ right to respect for their private life.
The Court in Strasbourg also noted that in prior judgements, Portugal’s Supreme Court had “not indicated any guilt on the applicants or even expressed suspicions against them,” concluding that their “complaint about their right to be considered innocent was obviously unfounded.”
The judges rejected the notion that the book had violated the McCanns’ right to a private life, noting that the McCanns themselves had conducted a series of media interviews following the release of the book.
They stated, “In particular, they participated in a documentary about their daughter’s disappearance and continued to grant interviews to the media.”
While the court acknowledged that the publication of the book had unquestionably caused anger, anguish, and distress to the applicants, it did not appear that the publication of the book or the broadcasting of the documentary (Amaral) had a significant impact on the applicants’ social relationships or on their ongoing efforts to locate their daughter.
The panel was presided by by Austrian president Gabriele Kucsko-Stadimayer, British judge Tim Eicke, and colleagues from Bulgaria, Armenia, Andorra, the Netherlands, and Portugal.
Madeleine was three years old when she disappeared from a vacation apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, where she was staying with her parents, brother, and sister.
Kate and Gerry had been dining at a nearby restaurant with a group of friends who were regularly checking on the sleeping children.
When Kate returned to the apartment at 10 p.m. to check on the children, she discovered that Madeleine had vanished.
The schoolgirl has never been located despite years of investigation by Portuguese police lead by Amaral and afterwards by British detectives.
In 2020, investigators took the rare step of designating Christian Brueckner, a German man incarcerated for rape in his home country, as the prime suspect.
Brueckner has a history of child sex offenses and drug smuggling, and in 2007 he was reported to be residing in a camper van near Praia da Luz.
Police believe phone records indicate Brueckner in the vicinity of the apartment where Madeleine was sleeping the night she vanished, but they cannot establish he abducted the girl at this time.
Police disclosed his identity in the hopes that someone with information may come forward, and have stated that they intend to file charges this year.
Brueckner’s attorneys have emphasized that he has not been formally charged, and he has reportedly written a letter to German prosecutors ordering them to “put up or shut up” from his detention cell.